PixlBit

Unlike a lot of old-media companies like Warner Bros Interactive, Fox Interactive, or Disney Interactive, which were just there to cash in on their IPs in the video game realm, LucasArts was a genuinely good game-maker once upon a time. I remember their games from the 1980s, when they were known as Lucasfilm Games. Koronis Rift, The Eidolon, BallBlazer, and Rescue on Fractalus were some of the most technologically advanced games of the time, That was also the time they started their adventure games. My favorite LucasArts game is Zombies Ate My Neighbors. But by the end of the 90s they were little more than a Star Wars licensing vehicle.

Maverick Hunter would have ended up like Bomberman: Act Zero on 360. It looked like a shameless attempt to pander to the American "dudebro" audience that would probably have ignored it and gone back to Halo 4.

I'm on the fence about Injustice. I'm not really nuts about comic book heroes myself, and the only reason I'm interested in it is because it was made by Ed Boon, the Mortal Kombat guy.

My question: Is it true that you are, in fact, the legendary Bigfoot?

What's going on with Capcom isn't really much different from what's going on anywhere else in the industry. These days, development costs are so inflated that companies want proven hits and low risk. That's why Activision is pretty much the Call of Duty factory these days, and why Capcom focuses on Street Fighter and Resident Evil. And it looks like they've milked the former pretty dry at this point. I'd like to see them do a new Breath of Fire, but that's probably out of the question in this climate. Heck, Camelot even offered to do Breath of Fire for them.

You're damn right Ni no Kuni is a game worth owning. I love it. Unless there's a BIG surprise later in the year I'm quite sure Ni no Kuni will be my GOTY.

"16 Tons" would almost be a song you could sing while working. It's certainly catchy enough. However, I think most managers would take a very dim view of their employees singing the song at work, especially in front of customers.

What would have made this game more interesting to me is making it cel-shaded and keeping it somewhat cartoonish. Look at Okami. Capcom originally planned to make it photorealistic, or at least what passed for photorealistic on PS2. The Ukiyo-e cel-shaded style they chose instead made it one of the most memorable video games ever made.

I guess what Capcom's doing makes some sense to the people running it. And they have done some good work this generation. SFIV was good until they overmilked it, and Dragon's Dogma is a good, if flawed, Western-flavored action-RPG with some of the best combat I've seen out of that genre. But some of their decisions have been downright baffling. I guess they must make sense to somebody high up in the company.

When I think of a work-related song, I think of "16 Tons", a song that recalls the days of the truck system when companies would keep workers in indentured servitude by paying them with vouchers that could only be redeemed at the company commissary. Supposedly Merle Travis wrote this song based on the experiences of his father, who was a coal miner under the truck system.

Retro's look was right for Metroid. Metroid has always been Nintendo's darkest, grittiest series. 

Their style is all wrong for Mega Man, who is a very cartoonish, anime character. The footage of this Mega Man game reminds me of Bomberman: Act Zero, which saw another cute anime character dudebroized in the same manner. That game was an abysmal flop. And that's being kind. At worst, this rendition of Mega Man calls to mind the ridiculous Westernized renditions of the character that appeared on the covers of the first two NES games, back when Japanese game companies absolutely refused to show Japanese art on the covers of the games they sold in the US.

I, too, am curious as to what Capcom's thinking with Mega Man. The Mega Man project I'm upset about losing is Mega Man Legends 3 - and that's because the Mega Man Legends games were the only Mega Man games I really enjoyed. Does Capcom simply not see a good ROI on Mega Man, or is this more ongoing bitterness from them over Keiji Inafune?

Right now I'm all about Ni no Kuni and Bioshock Infinite. Barring an upset from Tales of Xillia, Ni no Kuni will be my GOTY 2013.

I'm surprised it took you this long to get into Fallout 3. I figured it'd be right up your alley. Hopefully you will try New Vegas in the future. Gameplay-wise, New Vegas is easily the better of the two, with far more choices and RPG options than Fallout 3. However, I also enjoyed Fallout 3 for its atmosphere of desolation and moments like Tranquility Lane.  Fallout: NV and Fallout 3 are my third and fourth favorite games of the current generation, behind only Valkyria Chronicles and Ni no Kuni.

I thought the orphanage segments of Yakuza 3 were charming myself, and they made Kazuma a very likable character.